Snowshoes have been used for many years to traverse stretches of deep snow or ice whether for work or sport purposes. The design of snowshoes, however, has discouraged more general use because they are awkward to operate, difficult to attach to the boot and have a great tendency to slip backward or sideways on steep slopes. They are also difficult to maintain because of the materials used.
Present typical designs of snowshoes utilize wood frames with leather strips for webbing and the boot is attached to the snowshoe with a complicated binding arrangement of thongs, buckles and straps. Because of the snowshoe shape and loose bindings, these prior designs provided inadequate control over movement of the snowshoe and hence were very difficult to maneuver. Also the materials used required frequent care and upkeep. For example, the wood frames and leather webbing require frequent varnishing to reduce abrasion wear and, particularly, stretching of the leather components due to the absorption of water. Some recent designs incorporated synthetic materials for webbing but have similar problems with abrasive wear.
Prior snowshoes failed to prevent slipping on both uphill and sidehill traversing, especially on hard or icy snow. All-plastic snowshoes proved to be even more slippery and were much weaker than the wood and leather snowshoes they succeeded.
Of particular annoyance to snowshoe users has been the fact that these prior art designs required the use of the bare hands to manipulate the complicated plastic or leather bindings used to attach the boots to the snowshoes. The problem was aggravated at low temperatures and could be injurious to the user.